How to pronounce stroke? How to prevent it? How to diagnose it? You may not understand any of them.

What does stroke mean? How do you pronounce this disease? Only the elderly will get it? How can you diagnose it in the early stages? Can intravenous infusion prevent it? Let's hear the explanation from the neurology experts at Xuanwu Hospital.

Text/Reporter He Cong Editor/Chen Yongjie

New Media Editor/Chen Xuanzhi

Interview with audit experts:

Dong Kai (Deputy Chief Physician, Department of Neurology, Beijing Xuanwu Hospital)

October 29th of every year is World Stroke Day. Many people are familiar with stroke, and cases of disability and death caused by stroke make people afraid of the word "stroke". In modern medicine, stroke refers to acute cerebrovascular disease, which is caused by ischemia and hypoxia of brain cells due to blood vessel blockage or rupture, leading to brain cell death and clinical symptoms.

Stroke mainly includes two types: cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral infarction. Due to the disorder of cerebral blood circulation, brain function becomes abnormal in a short period of time. Cerebral hemorrhage is commonly referred to as cerebral hemorrhage, while cerebral thrombosis, cerebral embolism, lacunar cerebral infarction, etc. belong to the category of cerebral infarction.

▲ Stroke mainly includes cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral infarction (picture from the Internet)

Question 1: How do you pronounce "stroke"?

The correct pronunciation of stroke is “cù zhòng“. Why is it pronounced as “cuzhong”? Because “zhong” is the “zhong” in “stroke”, similar to the pronunciation of “poisoning” and “heatstroke”. And “zu” means “hastily” and “suddenly” when pronounced as “cù”. So the popular explanation of “stroke” is “sudden stroke”.

Question 2: Do only elderly people suffer from stroke?

Many people think that stroke is an old age disease and has little to do with young people, but this is not true. People of any age can get a stroke, and the onset is not related to gender or age. Nowadays, stroke patients tend to be younger, so young and middle-aged people should also pay enough attention, especially young people with a history of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease or a family history.

Most of the causes of stroke in young people are congenital diseases or external injuries that cause damage to the blood vessel wall. There are also long-term bad living habits that lead to vascular spasm and high blood pressure. Long-term mental stress, excessive work pressure, staying up late, etc. lead to vascular spasm and affect the blood supply to the brain. These are all possible causes of stroke.

▲The triggering factors of stroke (picture from the Internet)

Emotions also have a great relationship with stroke. Emotional fluctuations in the elderly may lead to increased blood pressure, which in turn leads to cerebral hemorrhage. Young people are busy at work, and the intense psychological pressure will cause blood vessels to contract and cause blood pressure fluctuations, which is a factor that induces stroke. Therefore, everyone should try to maintain a cheerful and optimistic attitude in daily life and work. Emotional stability can help the nerve center better regulate blood vessels.

Question 3: What are the serious consequences of stroke?

Stroke is a "four high disease", with high incidence, high recurrence rate, high disability rate and high mortality rate. Judging from these "four highs", stroke is a very harmful disease. If it is mild, it may affect some fine activities in daily life. If it is severe, it will greatly affect the patient's quality of life. In very severe cases, it will cause disability and make the patient bedridden and unable to take care of himself.

▲Severe stroke may lead to paralysis or even death (Picture from the Internet)

In China, due to the lack of sufficient understanding of such diseases, their risk factors are far from being well controlled, and the corresponding prevention, control and treatment measures are still unsatisfactory. The incidence and prevalence rates are increasing year by year. Patients suffer from varying degrees of loss of ability to work, hemiplegia, aphasia, dementia and other symptoms, and need to rely on others for care.

Therefore, people also figuratively call stroke "hemiplegia", which shows that even if stroke patients are lucky enough to survive, their quality of life will be seriously reduced. Some of these patients completely lose the ability to take care of themselves and rely on society and family to help them survive, which not only causes a serious economic burden on society and family, but also adds a psychological burden to the patients' family members.

Question 4: How can we diagnose stroke at an early stage?

The first step in treating a stroke is to quickly determine whether a stroke has occurred. So how do you determine a stroke? Here is the "FAST rule" for quickly identifying a stroke:

F (Face): Smile! When the two sides of the face are asymmetrical or one corner of the mouth is crooked, it is abnormal.

A (Arm): Raise your hands! When the patient closes his eyes and raises his arms for 10 seconds, if one arm falls down due to weakness, it is abnormal.

S (Speech): Answer fluently! If you ask a question and cannot speak clearly or clearly, it is abnormal.

T (Time, Telephone) If any of the above situations occurs, call the emergency number as soon as possible: domestic 120/international 911, and go to the hospital as soon as possible.

▲The "FAST rule" for judging stroke (picture from the Internet)

There are also some dangerous signs of stroke: pulsating tinnitus, frequent yawning, short-term weakness, sudden and specific headaches that are different from previous headaches, partial visual field defects, double vision and other short-term visual impairments.

Many times, when people are too tired or overuse their eyes, or even stand up suddenly, they may feel that the things in front of them are double. At this time, you can cover one eye. If you find that the image in front of you remains the same, it is a normal reaction or caused by eye problems. If you cover one eye and find that the vision becomes normal, you should remind yourself whether it is an early symptom of stroke, so as to detect and treat it early.

Question 5: How to help people around you who have suffered a stroke?

If you suspect someone has had a stroke, first determine whether they are conscious and breathing normally, check whether they have any limb movement disorders, and check whether there is vomit in their mouth. If they have stopped breathing or their heartbeat has stopped, immediately start cardiopulmonary resuscitation and call 120 at the same time. Transfer the patient to the nearest stroke treatment hospital or stroke center as quickly and safely as possible to minimize delays. If they are conscious and breathing smoothly, and only have limb movement disorders, immediately send them to a qualified hospital for treatment.

If the cerebral infarction arrives at the hospital within the time window (preferably within 3 hours), and if there are no contraindications to thrombolysis, thrombolysis can be performed; the life-saving time window for stroke is within 4.5 hours of onset. Within this time window, thrombolysis or thrombectomy can be performed to reduce or avoid the sequelae of thrombosis, which is beneficial to the later rehabilitation and quality of life of stroke patients. Mechanical thrombectomy of large vessels can be performed within 6 hours to restore blood vessel canalization. The earlier the treatment, the better the effect.

Question 6: Can intravenous infusion prevent stroke?

Although autumn and winter are the peak seasons for stroke, there is no scientific basis for relying solely on intravenous infusion to prevent stroke. In the early stages of a stroke, intravenous infusion rarely has a significant effect. In the Chinese stroke-related medical guidelines, there is no such item as intravenous infusion. Only thrombolysis requires intravenous infusion. Improper infusion will only aggravate the condition.

▲There is no scientific basis for preventing stroke by infusion alone (picture from the Internet)

Question 7: Do I still need to take medicine after I recover from a stroke?

A major reason why many stroke patients suffer from relapses is that they do not comply with medication (compliance: the patient's behavior of taking treatment according to the doctor's instructions). Generally speaking, antiplatelet drugs, anticoagulants, lipid-lowering drugs, anti-atherosclerotic drugs, and drugs for treating the three highs (high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high blood lipids) need to be taken for a long time, and patients should not reduce or stop taking the drugs without authorization.

▲ Stroke patients should not stop taking medication without authorization (Picture from the Internet)

If a stroke patient suffers from hypertension or coronary heart disease, he or she will need long-term oral lipid-lowering, antihypertensive, and antiplatelet drug treatment after the stroke. If he or she does not have hypertension, coronary heart disease or other underlying diseases, as long as he or she insists on annual physical examinations, no medication is needed.

Long-term oral statin is safe for most people, but attention should still be paid to the damage to muscles, liver and kidneys, and muscle enzymes, liver and kidney function should be checked regularly under the guidance of a physician. Long-term oral aspirin and other antiplatelet drugs have the main side effects of gastrointestinal reactions and effects on platelets.

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Produced by: Beijing Science and Technology News | Science Plus Client

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